DESCRIPTION:
Tan Dun (b. 1957): Concerto for Zheng and String Orchestra

I. Andante molto

Philharmonie Essen, July 11, 2008.

Yuan Li, Zheng

Tan Dun, Conductor
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

A re-arrangement of the "Pipa Concerto" (1999) which is based on "Ghost Opera" (1995) for string quartet and pipa with water, metal, stones, and paper. In the "Zheng Concerto" the players are not only playing their own instruments, but also contributing stomps, yips, yells, sighs and hand-slaps, sometimes in imitation of Eastern instruments.
It's a cross-temporal and cross-cultural dialogue that touches on the past, present, future, and the eternal. The Concerto employs elements from Chinese, Tibetan, English, and American cultures; and combines performance traditions of the European classical concert and the shamanistic ritual.
Wu Man called it a "giddy merging of traditions and a leapfrogging through music history, in which cultural integration is effortless. The Zheng may be exotic in Western music, but it is no longer alien. No single work more exemplifies Tan's range, which extends from uncompromising experimentalism to populism."